Russian reporters beaten; both covered highway project

November 8, 2010 5:34 PM ET

New York, November 8,
2010--The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces two attacks on
journalists in the Moscow region and calls on authorities to end impunity in
crimes against reporters in Russia. Both victims, Oleg Kashin of the business
daily Kommersant and Anatoly Adamchuk
of the independent weekly Zhukovskiye
Vesti, have covered a contentious highway project that would go through a
forest in the Moscow suburb of Khimki. Kashin worked on a number of other
sensitive subjects as well.

"We are outraged by the recent attacks on Oleg Kashin and Anatoly
Adamchuk and call on Russian law enforcement to investigate every possible lead
and question all possible suspects, regardless of their rank and position, CPJ
Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina
Ognianova said. "No one must be considered above the law in
Russia. All of the perpetrators must answer before a court of law and be punished
for these brutal crimes."

Although authorities have not pinpointed motives in the
attacks, the reports revived memories of a 2008 episode in which assailants
savagely beat a newspaper editor, Mikhail Beketov, who had campaigned against a
Khimki highway project.

Kashin, 30, was returning home from a Moscow café around 1
a.m. Saturday, when two unidentified men attacked him outside his home,
according to local and international news reports. The assailants, who were
apparently awaiting Kashin's return, struck him repeatedly with a heavy object,
possibly a metal bar, according to press reports. (The Moscow-based news
website Lifenews, published a graphic video of the attack that
was taken by a nearby surveillance camera.) The attackers did not take any of Kashin's
belongings, and fled the scene after a neighbor arrived on the street, Kommersant reported. Kashin was
hospitalized with a broken skull, jaw, fingers, and leg; he remained in a medically
induced coma today.

Kashin's reporting on the highway project had drawn threats
from the pro-Kremlin youth group Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guards). In August,
after Kashin reported on anti-highway protests, Molodaya Gvardiya published a
column on its website headlined "Journalist-Betrayers
Should Be Punished" along with an image of Kashin that was stamped, "He will be
punished." The column was removed by Saturday; Molodaya Gvardiya said it was
not responsible for the attack. Kashin had also recently criticized the
governor of Pskov Region, Andrei Turchak, on his personal blog.

In a separate case, at least two men beat Adamchuk, a
journalist with the independent weekly Zhukovskiye
Vesti, outside the paper's offices in Zhukovsky early today, the
independent news website Lenta
reported. Lenta said the assailants
approached Adamchuk from behind, knocked him to the ground, and repeatedly struck
and kicked him. Adamchuk was hospitalized with a concussion; only a flash drive
went missing after the attack, news reports said. Like Kashin, Adamchuk had
covered protests against the building of the highway in Khimki.

On Saturday, President Dmitry Medvedev condemned the attack
on Kashin and ordered Prosecutor
General Yuri Chaika and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev to bring the assailants
to justice. Russia's Investigative Committee, the nation's top criminal
investigative agency, opened a probe and said Kashin's journalism was among the
leading motives.

An attack on Thursday also drew attention. Konstantin
Fetisov, a Khimki environmental activist, was beaten by at least two assailants
armed with baseball bats. He remained in an induced coma
today. In a scenario similar to the Kashin beating, the attackers were waiting
for the activist outside his apartment building in Khimki, local and international
press reports said.

Two years ago this week, Khimki newspaper editor Beketov
was brutally beaten in his own front yard by unidentified assailants who broke
his skull, legs, and the fingers of both hands; he had to have one leg and
several fingers amputated and, having undergone eight surgeries, was still left
without the ability to walk or speak. Beketov had reported on and campaigned
against the same highway project--started and sponsored by Khimki Mayor Vladimir
Strelchenko. While the investigation into the Beketov attack is "suspended for
lack of suspects," Strelchenko is suing the disabled Beketov for criminal defamation
in a Khimki court. Beketov had blamed Strelchenko for an earlier attack, an
assertion the mayor denied.

"While Russia is allowing this travesty of justice to go
on--where the attacked are sued and their attackers go free--the cycle of
violence will be perpetuated. We call on authorities to sever that cycle now,"
Ognianova said.

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